SCI Contracting Office: Save the Children, Hargeisa, Somaliland.

Period of Consultancy: The estimated period of the assignment is 30 days.

Consultant type required: Both individual and consultant companies can apply this assignment.

Responsibility for Logistics arrangements and Costs: The consultant will be responsible for covering all the relevant costs to this assignment. However, SCI will only arrange the required transport while traveling within Somaliland for the purpose of this assignment.

Taxation Provisions: Consultant shall be responsible for all Taxes arising from the consultancy in line with the Somaliland Tax regulations applicable at the SCI Somaliland.

Travel requirements: The consultant will travel to the field locations as per required where the project activities are going on. Some of these location including Gabiley, Borama, Berbera, Shiekh, Burao, Ainabo Lasanod and Erigavo.

Security requirements: Consultant will comply with standard Save the Children Security procedures, including the completion of SCI online security training prior to travel to Somaliland.

Qualification and Experience: The applicant must have the following profiles:

• Should have proven record/prior work of MTR with similar education programs in similar context.
• Must have knowledge/qualification on basic (primary and secondary) education and educational statistics.
• The applicant must have at least 5 years working experience in conducting assessments, evaluations and monitoring projects in a fragile environment.
• The applicant must have deep understanding and knowledge on Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, Learning and Research.
• The consultant company must have legal valid registration proving its existence and presence.

Evaluation Criteria: The evaluation criteria include the followings:

• Relevancy of the technical proposal to the ToR
• Understanding to the assignment by the applicant.
• Responsibility of the costs presented in the financial proposal.
• Prior experience for the applicants in doing similar assignments.
• Qualifications and experience of the applicants.
• Availability and flexibility of the consultant during completing this assignment.
• Knowledge of Somali context or similar locations in the region.
• Meet with legal requirement and taxation.

ANNEX 1 : Consultancy Terms of Reference

1. Background

Save the children and Care International as a consortium have been implementing an education program namely Horumarinta Elmiga III. The program follows a sector-wide approach with a strong focus on public ownership and joint decision-making. Horumarinta Elmiga III (also called “Education for Empowerment through Cohesive and Harmonized System”) is three-year (January 2019 – December 2021) program funded by the European Union. The program covers all the six administrative regions for Somaliland namely Marodi-jeh, Awdal, Sahil, Togdher, Sool and Sanag. The main partner for the program is the Ministry of Education and Higher Studies for Somaliland.

Horumarinta Elmiga III program targets to expand Basic Education (BE) and Non-Formal Education (NFE) opportunities in underserved areas; mainstream Basic Education for Pastoralists (BEP); reach children with special needs; and provide demand-driven Technical Vocation Education Training (TVET) for employment. The action also targets to improve quality of education through teacher trainings and system strengthening.

The overall objective of the program is “Improved educational attainment for school-age boys and girls in Somaliland”. The project has also a specific objective which says “Increased access to equitable and inclusive quality education for school-age boys and girls in Somaliland”.

The program has three interrelated outcomes with clear targets shown below table which contribute to the realization of the project purpose and specific objective.

Outcome 1: Increased access to equitable and inclusive basic education for children.
Key Program Targets

• 13,500 (48% girls) formal primary school students.
• 4,785 pastoralist children for ABE
• 10,080 (48% girls) secondary school students.
• 2,880 NFE learners.
• 350 (50% girls) youth for IBTVET skills.

Outcome 2: Improved learning outcomes for boys and girls in school.
Key Program Targets

• 245 (60% F) pre-service teacher training for primary schools.
• Improved learning outcomes for primary school children as measured by literacy (EGRA) and numeracy (EGMA) pass rates.
  Reading : 65 % CWPM
  Comprehension: 80%
• Establish and train 966 CECs members in the supported schools.
• Strengthen the literacy and numeracy boosting skills for the schoolteachers though trainings and provision of supplementary reading materials.
• Provision of School Grants to 120 supported schools to develop and implement School Improvement Plan

Outcome 3: Increased capacity of MOES at all levels to lead, manage and monitor the education system.
Key Program Targets

• Capacity building of MOE&HS at regional and central levels.
• Embedment of short term and need based Technical Advisory/consultancy.
• Policy and legal framework review
• Annual Joint Review of the Education Sector (JRES)
• Steering Committee Meetings (SCM):
• Support the coordination of Education Sector Committee (ESC).

In a bid to assess program progress mid-term, Save the children on behalf of Horumarinta Elmiga Consortium is looking for a qualified consultant with appropriate technical capacity and experience to conduct midterm review of Horumarinta Elmiga III project.

2. Purpose of the mid-term review

The purpose of this review is to assess performance of the program by focusing on the extent to which the activities are suited to the priorities and polices of the target group (relevance); achievement of purpose and planned results (effectiveness); sound management and value for money (efficiency); likely continuation of achieved results (sustainability), mutual reinforcements (coherence); and EC value added. . The review process should also highlight challenges encountered during the project implementation: document key lessons learnt; and if necessary advise on adaptations of remaining interventions.

3. Objectives of the mid-term review

The specific objectives of this mid-term review is to:

• Review the relevance, coherence and effectiveness of the implementation approach and give recommendations for future programming.
• Ascertain the level to which the project employs the principle of sector wide approach (SWA).
• Establish the extent to which the project interventions contribute towards increased access to inclusive, equitable and quality education for the children and young people in Somaliland.
• Establish the level to which the project have increased participation of youth and adults (disintegrated by sex) in Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
• Assess quality and maintenance of school infrastructure project supported by the project.
• Measure the extent to which the management and coordination capacity of education institutions including MOE central and regional administrations and teacher training college have been strengthened by the project.
• Derive lessons learned and promising practices to improve the quality of programme implementation and monitoring, and indicate how they can be applied in the remainder of the programmes.
• Identify and, if deemed necessary, make suggestions for adjustments of key elements of the programmes, including targets and implementation strategies.

4. Mid-Term Review Questions

The selected consult should develop detailed mid-term review questions and the data collection tools during the inception report.

5. Scope of the mid-term review

The project coverage is the all six administrative regions of Somaliland (Awdal, Marodi-jeh, Sahil, Togdher, Sool and Sanag) and currently targets 90 primary schools, 36 ABE schools, 48 secondary schools, 6 IBTVET centers, Teacher training college and the MoES offices. However, the review process will draw a representative sample from the target population considering proportionality for the target groups.

An external consultant under the guidance of the HE III consortium manager / consortium MEAL manager and the Ministry of Education will lead the whole process of the mid-term review. The consultant will develop the data collection tools, train the data collection team, coordinate the field data collection process, interpret the data and produce a comprehensive mid-term review report.

6. Methodology of the midterm review

The methodology to be adopted by the review shall generate both quantitative and qualitative information, that specific methodology to employ should be participatory, and to enable triangulating data from the key stakeholders including children. Quantitatively, it should include well developed study tools or questionnaires with proper random selection of participants where appropriate. Qualitatively, it should mainly comprise of desk review, use of primary and secondary data and field consultations with the different stakeholders (children’s & youth groups benefiting from the project, CECs, REOs/DEOs office, selected IBTVET institutions, Teacher training college and MOES departments. Case studies are expected to be used to document changes brought about by the project on specific cases, lessons learnt and good practices that can be replicated elsewhere. The lead researcher (consultant) will be responsible for further development of the methodology and the review tools to show how data for each review objective will be captured.

6. Roles and responsibilities

a) The Consultant:

• In liaison with the relevant HE III consortium team, the consultant will develop a technical proposal with a clear methodological approach, a work plan, budget and tools that will be approved by the consortium management team.
• Train all data collection team (enumerators) members on the use of the tools and the agreed methodology.
• Conduct midterm project review – field work for data collection on all outcome, output and result indicators in line with approved methodology, data analysis and interpretation in favor of the objectives of the midterm review.
• Draft review report and shared it with the consortium team and the MoES for inputs/feedback in a validation meeting.
• Submit final comprehensive review report in and electronic copy to the consortium management unit under the Save the Children.

b) HE III consortium teams:

• Approve the review design, methodology and the data collection tools.
• Recruit and remunerate the data collection team/enumerators.
• Schedule and manage appointments for the data collection process.
• Provide logistic support for the assignment.
• Ensure that key staff from the consortium members are available for interviews when needed.
• Provide project documents (proposal, log frame, baseline information, reports, etc).
• Provide feedback and comments on the draft review report prior to the completion of the final report.

7. Reporting Arrangements

The consultant will report directly to Save the Children office in Hargiesa. The Education MEAL Manager will be the focal person who will lead this exercise in coordination with the consortium management teams. The consultant will submit the follow key reports.

• Inception report including MTR matrix, work plan and data collection tools for the mid-term review within a week after the contract is signed.
• First draft report for the MTR including all the findings, recommendations and action points to be submitted within the first week of October 2020.
• Final MTR report incorporated with all the comments and suggests from the key stakeholders on 8^th October 2020.